Careless offense catching up to Warriors

Careless offensive play and, more specifically, turnovers have been a part of who the Warriors are. Finally, it has caught up to them.

Throughout the regular season, the Golden State Warriors have struggled turning the ball over but it rarely resulted in losses. The Warriors were 25th in the NBA in turnovers per game at almost 15 per game.

Most of the time, the Warriors were able to overcome their turnovers because they were such a good shooting team and their defense was among the best in the league. But in the Western Conference Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Warriors have continued to be careless with the basketball and has led to a 3-to-1 deficit. Their careless offense and turnovers may finally be catching up to them at the worst possible time.

Coach Steve Kerr has harped all season not to go for the “home run” pass and go for either a “single” or “double”. In the series against the Thunder, the Warriors have gone for that “home run”, by trying to pass over the top of the Thunder defense instead of swinging the ball around perimeter and looking for cutters in the paint. The result has been deflected passes, leading to fast breaks for the explosive Thunder team, led by Russell Westbrook.

Westbrook is probably the most dangerous player in the open court in the NBA and any steal or rebound he gets, frequently results in a dunk at the other end. If he is not the one finishing the play, it is most likely his superstar counterpart, Kevin Durant. Even if the Thunder do not convert on their first opportunity, they often get offensive rebounds, due to their size, effort and the Warriors just scrambling to get back on defense.

Even when the Warriors are not turning the ball over, their offense has been unrecognizable. The Warriors led the NBA with 29 assists per game in the regular season, swinging the ball around, passing up good shots for great shots. Against the Thunder, this team is only averaging 21 assists per game and have had less than 20 in both games in Oklahoma City, including an anemic 15 in Game 4.

The Warriors assist numbers are down because they are turning the ball over but they are not swinging the ball around like they did in the regular season. This team has resembled the Warriors of old with Coach Mark Jackson when they ran lots of pick and roll and isolation play. There were countless possessions on Tuesday night where the Warriors would just complete one or two passes and a shot would go up with most of the those shots being threes.

Many of these shots are contested, leading to the Thunder’s deadly transition game. Even when they are open, the Warriors are not knocking down open jumpers with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green being the main culprits.

Each of these players shot over 39 percent from three point range in the regular season but against the longer Thunder team, the trio has struggled. Curry is shooting only 37 percent, Thompson is shooting 31 percent and Green is shooting a horrible 17 percent.

All of the reasons have contributed to the Warriors being down 3-1 to the Thunder and on the brink of elimination. If the Warriors want to turn this series around and become the 10th team in NBA history to come back from a 3-1 deficit, they need to limit their turnovers and move the basketball on offense.

Many experts have pointed the rebounding differential as the reason the Warriors are losing this series, which is partly true. But if the Warriors make better decisions on offense and move the ball to get great shots, their shooting percentage will increase, their turnovers will decrease and their defense will improve because the Thunder’s offense will not be in transition.

A set defense will allow them to slow down the Thunder offense and will give them more energy to rebound and retrieve loose balls, negating the Thunder’s height advantage. Setting their defense will also make it more likely to start their own transition game, where they were the most effective in the regular season and why this team was so much fun to watch.

If the Warriors want to repeat as champions, they will have the forget about making the spectacular play on offense because it has clearly been ineffective against the Thunder. Instead they need to get back to the fundamentals by moving the ball more, being more active by coming off screens and hunt great shots instead of good shots.

If they can achieve this, do not be surprised if this team comes back and continues their miraculous season on their way to the NBA Finals.